Snowbound Lodge Is A Welcome Sight

The Cascade Lodge is a classic example of poor business sense.

No entrepreneur in his right mind would sink his savings into a restaurant that’s snowbound miles from the nearest plowed road and virtually buried under seven feet of snow.

There’s no utility service for electricity this far up the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River. The winter’s heat comes from 16 cords of wood split by way of sweat and sore muscles.

But John Nichols isn’t an accountant. He’s in the business of making things work.

He’s been a trucker, logger and commercial diver. Now he owns a heavy equipment repair business in Post Falls.

In a weaker moment, he bought Cascade Lodge in 1991 as sort of a missionary service to adventurous snowmobilers.

“It’s a never-ending maintenance nightmare,” he said. “But it’s a hell of a fun thing to see the look on snowmobilers’ faces when they stumble onto this place in the middle of nowhere.”

The lodge was built by area residents Jim and Sue Brooks in 1976 on five acres of private land within the Idaho Panhandle National Forest.

“That’s about the time the county grooming program started,” Nichols said. “There are 350 miles of groomed snowmobile trails in this area, but the average machine can only go 75-100 miles on a tank of gas.”

In other words, getting to the lodge wouldn’t be possible without the groomed trails. Getting to all the groomed trails isn’t convenient without the lodge.

“On weekends, we have four or five people working,” Nichols said. “One person pretty much keeps busy all day just pumping gas.”

But to get information on the lodge, you have to know a snowmobiler who’s been there or call Nichols at home.

The lodge doesn’t have a phone.

“We’ve let it be a word-of-mouth thing,” Nichols said. The lodge a destination in itself by staying open daily throughout the year, with the exception of spring breakup.

“We usually close at the end of March and reopen for Memorial Day,” he said. “But with all the snow this year, we’ll be open into mid-April.”

Every Wednesday evening, the lodge features a $6 all-you-can-eat spaghetti feed. The weekly event attracts 100-200 snowmobilers from civilization for an evening out in the woods.

“Some people prefer to ride in the dark,” Nichols said. “They say it’s safer because you can see the lights of oncoming traffic.”

On Fridays, snowmobilers have caught on to bringing their own steaks for the lodge to grill. “We supply all the fixings,” Nichols said.

The restaurant is always open with typical grill items for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Such regular service is no small task for a remote outpost.

“We stock the place for winter just before the snow closes the roads in November,” he said. “We haul in 5,000 gallons of gas and a few thousand gallons of diesel to run the electric generators.”

Plus 1,000 gallons of propane. “We take in 600 cases of beer and as much hard products as possible, including 3,000 pounds of potatoes.

“We have a french fry press and make our own fries right at the lodge,” he said. “We’d have to fold up if we ever stopped doing that. People would riot.”

Despite the effort of packing in supplies, a Cascade Lodge hamburger with a big slab of meat and fries costs $5 - $1.50 less than a burger at the citified convenience of the Coeur d”Alene Resort.

Nichols bought an old county snowcat to smooth the trail into the lodge and move snow for parking snowmobiles. But you can move only so much snow.

In summer, there are seven steps up to the lodge door. This week, patrons walked straight in. “There’s about six feet of snow in the parking area,” he said.

He also grooms a series of trails that are too narrow for the larger county groomers.

Throughout the winter, he re-supplies the lodge with the snowcat, which can haul up to 400 gallons of gas or 3,000 pounds of supplies.

By mid-winter, he had brought in another 3,000 pounds of potatoes.

The lodge also serves beer and wine, and offers three rustic rooms for $50 a night should anyone feel the need to stay.

“People drink up here, but it’s not like owning a bar in town where people come because they have problems. People who come here are enjoying themselves. It’s recreation. It’s a whole different atmosphere.”

During summer, the lodge is a retreat for wandering mountain bikers, four-wheelers, anglers, berry pickers and people just out for a drive in the mountains.

Forest Service workers may stop in for lunch. Elk hunters congregate there in the fall.

The lodge has helped open the winter backcountry in more ways than one.

The colossal number of downed trees caused by ice storms this fall clogged the trail system. Nichols was in the thick of the unsung but gallant volunteer effort to open the trails.

The lodge also doubles as a base for any searches or rescues.

“We’re usually the first to be contacted if there’s an accident,” he said. “We have the sleds for packing people out, and chainsaw winches for pulling out sleds. We have the only radio contact to the sheriff’s department.”

Cellular phone service doesn’t reach the valleys in the upper Coeur d’Alene drainage, yet Nichols has not installed a radio telephone.

“You’ve got to have a place to get away,” he said. “If I had a phone up here, people would come up with all sorts of reasons to use it. Without one, people relax. So can I.”

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